Democrats and Republicans don’t see eye to eye very often, but they can safely agree on one point: welfare doesn’t work. We must redesign this entire system. In the most prosperous nation in the world, it is ludicrous that children are growing up in the kind of deprivation we normally associate with developing countries.

Alaska’s House of Representatives has passed a bill which sets the state’s annual PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend) at approximately $1,600 per person next year, an amount which has been confirmed after a hard-fought legislative battle over the size of the payment. The PFD, which is funded largely out of oil revenues, has been reduced for the past couple of years

Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and activist organisation, has released a policy paper suggesting that universal basic income (UBI) could be the best option for an independent Scotland. Dr Craig Dalzell, the Head of Research for Common Weal, argues that “the anxiety and stress caused by the pressure to conform to the constantly shifting rules around claiming welfare can

Several Western and European countries have been seriously considering Universal Basic Income recently. Numerous countries already have social programs that supplement individual incomes for select groups, such as unemployment compensation, food stamps, or housing income, but none have a program involving basic income for every individual. The think tank NABNI (French acronym for “Our Algeria Built on New Ideas”) laid

Charles Eisenstein is a degrowth activist, speaker and author of several books including “Sacred Economics,” and “The Ascent of Humanity” (some of which are available online for free), as well as a long time proponent of “alternative narratives,” political and economic ideas that challenge our current system. His work combines an interest in ecology with biology, earth healing, and the

Scott Santens reveals “meritocracy” as the cynical defense of a system where privilege creates advantage, and advantage leads to success. He says UBI would help restore a semblance of true competition by reducing the unfair advantages of inheritance and luck.

Charlie Wood writes, for the Christian Science Monitor, that evidence is building supporting the idea that direct cash transfer does not encourage economic vice, but virtue. Will the same be true for UBI?